Growth Track 360 and Mersey Dee Alliance explain to Welsh Labour Conference case

Business and local authority leaders in the Growth Track 360 and Mersey Dee Alliance partnerships have explained their case for cross-border rail infrastructure investment at the Welsh Labour Conference.

At a fringe meeting held during the Welsh Labour Conference in Llandudno on Saturday 12 March and chaired by Mick Whitley, Labour MP for Birkenhead.

Helen Swift, Public Affairs Manager for Airbus UK, gave the perspective of an iconic advanced manufacturing business on the importance of the Mersey Dee Alliance’s cross-border recovery deal following the pandemic and of improved public transport connectivity throughout the region.

Councillor Liam Robinson, Chair of Liverpool City Region Transport Committee, said that a multi-billion-pound visitor economy has been built in the Wales-England cross-border region despite the limited public transport provision, so it is right to imagine what could be achieved with a modernised and expanded public transport system.

He added that the brilliant relationship between Liverpool City Region and the Welsh Government is enabling development of a joint approach to bus improvements throughout the cross-border region; and

Councillor Stuart Whittingham from Wirral, Vice Chair of the Mersey Dee Alliance, explained how the high degree of cross-border economic integration has enormous potential to contribute to a Net Zero Carbon economic transformation.